2/10

Today we had another English lesson in the morning, and then workshops in the afternoon. Cara, Courtney and I attempted to make cookies with nine very shy, German-speaking girls, in a 6x6 foot kitchen. Similarly to the first attempt at American cookie-making at Annelie’s, we were slightly less than successful. To mix things up, we had decided to attempt wrapping chocolate chip cookie dough around Oreos and then baking them. Because German ingredients are so much different than American ones (and not because my baking skills are lacking whatsoever..), we ended up with a single chocolate chip pizza with Oreo lumps in it.

The girls were tentative at best when we sat them around the table, handed them forks, and set a steaming pan of slightly mushy cookie. (Speaking of which, mushy has a different meaning in German..we got some strange looks using it to describe cookies.) But when Cara and I took bites and lived through it, all the girls dug in and seemed to quite enjoy themselves...not that we would’ve known had they not enjoyed themselves. They weren’t a talkative bunch. It was fun though, and the time went by quickly.

After dinner, I was in a weird mood and needed to prepare for the devotion I’m giving tomorrow at the worship service. So instead of watching a movie with the kids, I ran upstairs, took a quick nap and grabbed a shower. After, I went down again and helped a little bit with lock-up.

One of the kids that was here last time, Daniel, a favorite because he’s friendly and fun to talk to, was having chest pains tonight. He turned pale and was hyperventilating on his bed. We found out later that it’s some sort of heart condition that he has, but it a sober reminder of how fragile life is. I don’t think any of us had realized just how important these kids have become to us, especially the ones who were here last time too. It’s amazing to think about how much of an impact we have the opportunity to make on their lives, even if we never end up seeing them again.

When we had prayed for Daniel, we were sitting around talking for awhile until the halls quieted down. I went down into the basement to fill up my water glass and was slightly spooked by the creepy empty hallway down there. I ran up the stairs in a mini-panic and told Caleb and James how scary it was, at which point they promptly headed down to check it out. With nothing better to do, I followed them. To add to the adrenaline, we left the lights off. The guys were clearly having fun with it, punching the air in front of them and kicking open doors vehemently. I was holding onto one or the other of them so as to avoid running face-first into a wall. Several times, one of us would run into the other and one person’s screams incited the other two to start freaking out as well. Needless to say, it was fun.

Until it got serious. A squeaking dinosaur screech echoed through the hallways. We froze. In the darkness, you could almost hear three spines shiver. Caleb held his water bottle overhead defensively. Silence. Apparently, we decided that the sound had come from the building..I’m not sure how that mental jump occurred, all I know is about five minutes later, there was another shriek followed by two manly screams and one very girly one and we all ended up covered in the water that was initially filling Caleb’s bottle. Simon struck a deathly blow on our pride in those terrifying moments.

Next, we walked back down another hallway that looked to me like an abandoned mental institution. It was creepily reflective, but not as scary cause it was lit. Unfortunately, Simon found a way around the lighting. He stood in the doorway behind us. Doesn’t sound scary, but add the serial killer horror movie head tilt and a psychopathic smile and you’ve created the perfect scenario for my next blood-curdling scream. I’m a wimp, but it was fun.

After our little Christian school haunted house experience, we watched Tangled. It was funny and I caught myself smiling cheesily as the lanterns floated over Eugene and Rapunzel singing in their boat on the perfect water. You know I like a movie when I remember characters’ names. Granted, Rapunzel was kinda a given, but still..

Afterwards, we trudged upstairs like zombies and Steph and I snuggled and talked about Prince Charming. It was cute. I’ve got a pretty awesome best friend.